computer components & hardware - Creative Audio card Kills 3Com Etherfast III

Hello there,

I'm helping a friend with his windows 98 system. The hardware seems to be
compatible together, he hasn't made any changes to a working system except
he installed a new hard drive. However, for some reason after installing
the os and the internet, when he installs the audio card driver, it stops
the ethernet card (or networking software) from working. He's tried 3
times and each time when the Creative Soundblaster Live! Value driver is
installed, the cable modem connection fails. I tried upgrading the driver
to the latest on the creative web page, but after troubleshooting, this is
the info I got.

The ip address is valid per the isp, so the networking software gets a
good ip. I can ping localhost and the ip address, but ping doesn't reach
the gateway, and I can't ping either a numerical address or a hostname. I
tried the usual powercycling, but the problem is consistent after his 3
attempts, the sound card trumps the networking.

I was going to suggest installing the cable modem software last, but
according to the isp, you don't need any special login software anymore,
it is a straight dhcp connection with no hard-coded dns servers. I tried
deinstalling and reinstalling the nic card driver, and the audio card
driver, but the internet still isn't working.

If anyone has any suggestions, please post them, I'd really appreciate any
tips.

Thanks,
Ramon